Wales: Neath: Church Place / Old Market Street:
comparison of two advertisements in local directories
from the years 1873 and 1885

<
Percy, Butcher & Co.'s Swansea & Neath Directory for 1873-74

This advertisement for the Neath Turkish Baths was published in the
local Swansea and Neath directory for 1873-4 shortly after Mr Fraley
became manager. It probably takes for granted that the baths are closed on
Sundays, in spite of the phrase 'open daily'. It is interesting to compare this
with the advertisement published twelve years later.

< Wilson's trades directory of Wales, 1885

Mr Fraley is still manager and, perhaps surprisingly, the first
and second class baths still cost the same as they did twelve years earlier. In
this ad, the difference between the two classes of baths is clearly indicated.

The bath attendance figures published
in the Western Mail on 26 April 1870 also mention third class baths
which are not mentioned in either ad. A third class bath would almost certainly have been the
same as a second class bath, but without the shampoo.

The major difference between the two
ads is that there is no longer a day set aside for women
bathers.